West Ham United Women's manager Rehanne Skinner says that the future is bright for England after their run to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup final.
The Lionesses made it to a second successive final under Sarina Weigman’s stewardship as they took the nation on another memorable rollercoaster of emotions, but ultimately fell short at the final hurdle in Sunday’s final, losing 1-0 to Spain. Olga Carmona’s 29th minute strike broke English hearts at Stadium Australia, with the 23-year-old arrowing a strike beyond Mary Earps that would be the difference.
Despite the result, the success of the Lionesses will have a lasting effect on the women’s game in England. They have inspired the nation yet again; the final was watched by a peak audience of 12 million viewers on BBC One, whilr over in Australia and New Zealand, almost two million fans attended matches. That number was up by more than 600,000 on the previous record that was set in 2015.
Skinner herself was out in Sydney, commentating on matches for the world feed before heading home to take her first West Ham training session last week.
The Hammers boss spoke to Sky Sports about the impact that the World Cup will leave on women’s game in England, shared her thoughts on the Lionesses’ journey and looked ahead to the upcoming Barclays Women’s Super League (WSL) campaign.
Sarina has done a fantastic job with both nations that she has managed.
I think we [England] are on the rise for sure, so for her to keep driving us forward I think would be really, really important.
We’ve got to fight off these other nations to keep the consistency with her, I think that’s the most important thing, England have got to secure her services to keep developing.
In the last few years those players have been the most progressive bunch that we’ve had for quite a long period of time. We had an U20s World Cup [in France in 2018] where a lot of those players had that experience. I think we’ve got a strong squad and something to build from.
I just think we’re in such a good place and we’ve got a youth setup that’s developing players consistently. There are other players coming through the system and that has been the work of 20-odd years of trying to get all of the teams in the right place, the right position and the structure behind that to help us produce players for exactly this type of conversation.
There were some really good highs as well as some lows during the tournament.
I think the Nigeria game at the round of 16 was a real tough test, but at the same time for as much as it was a bit of a low, it also galvanised the team because we had to be so resilient to get through the game with ten players [after Lauren James' sending-off].
The way that the extra-time was managed, I think the players did exceptionally well, and to go and win a penalty shoot-out was brilliant. That’s twice now in the last six months in the summer and obviously in that game, it was a bit of a rollercoaster that one.
I think the high for me was when we played Columbia [in the quarter-finals]. They were such an outstanding team, and their style of play is something that we don’t come across that often.
It was testament to the way that we managed to restrict them and the way that we got through that. it showed the growth of the team and I thought that was a great result for us.
We offer something in the WSL that no other league really does.
There’s a lot of variety in tactical structures and the way that teams play. it’s such a test week in and week out because we have different styles of play in the teams that are there. I think that’s a huge test and it helps players develop.
I think the big point is the WSL is, for me, if it’s not the best league in the world then I think in the next season it will be, with the number of players and the quality that are coming into our league.
For the league itself, I think clubs need to continue the investment, continue the performance support behind the scenes and look after the players to the best of our ability so we keep creating a league that everybody wants to be a part of.
For those players that are coming back, it just helps them to continue to elevate our English National Team players to be able to play on a world stage by playing against top quality players week in week out. That’s the reason the whole league started in the first place really.
I think it’ll be a really, really exciting league this year, I’m glad to be on the grass with the players at West Ham, having done it from afar and collectively we want to try and provide a great product for the whole league.
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